Shop Amazon by TXT From Your Cell
Amazon starts the war against Paypal. Today, you can not only send or receive money via cell phone using Amazon’s mobile payment platform, but also can you search and buy items from Amazon.
Now you can Search for items, Check prices, and Buy wherever and whenever you want – using text messaging! Simply text your search to ‘262966’ (AMAZON) and get search results and prices in seconds. Text ‘iPod Nano’ to 262966 to try searching now.
To enable your phone to buy using TextBuyIt, you will need to add your mobile phone number and confirm your shipping/payment defaults for your Amazon.com account. Activate now to start buying from your mobile phone or learn more about this new feature at TextBuyIt.
I tried it and really like it. I usually go to bookstore to browser books and write the books I like to my cellphone and came back home do the online book shopping. With this service, I can complete the transaction right inside the bookstore. Nice.
Put LV on your N95
Have extra green bucks in your wallet to burn? Your Java enabled N95 will help you out.
Whilst the whole industry is looking at location-based technology solutions as the new nirvana, Louis Vuitton enters the digital mobile space with a series of value-added content products using low-tech location. Creativity at its top!
The Louis Vuitton Soundwalk, a unique location-based urban soundtrack, produced in collaboration with Soundwalk is a cutting-edge audio guide, available in six languages, offering a vibrant portrayal of three Chinese cities – Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – following the footsteps of the three greatest icons of Chinese Cinema: Gong Li for Beijing, Shu Qi for Hong Kong and Joan Chen for Shanghai.
Ideally for people travelling to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, each hour-long soundwalk features a story whose narration perfectly synchronizes with the itinerary - the voice of the narrator geographically guides the physical visitor in real time through an area of a city or a district - accompanied by the signature sounds of the city.
Original soundtracks composed by Kubert Leung and Albert Yu. Shan Sa (”The Girl Who Played Go”) and Mei Feng (up-and-coming young Chinese author), have written these journeys much like film scripts —- subtly blending reality and fiction to offer a cinematic experience in the heart of the city.
Each Louis Vuitton Soundwalk are available in six languages: English, French, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. Each Louis Vuitton Soundwalk can be purchased separately in six different currencies: 17 USD, 12 EUR, 8 GBP, 2 000 JPY, 140 HKD, 130 RMB.
The mobile Java MIDP 2.0 client, powered by Clicmobile, will be released on July 4th; this version adds exclusive mobile content such as images, texts and maps to the audio lifestyle experience.
Nokia Owns Symbian Now
Nokia isn’t finished with its acquisition spree just yet. Tonight the Finnish company announced a plan to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn’t already own and make the platform open source. Nokia clearly aims to challenge Android, the open source mobile operating system of Google. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says that it wants to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications”.
As Techcraver.com points out, part of this move might be an answer to the delays Google’s Android operating system is currently experiencing. But at the same time, this could also be driven by Nokia wanting to have more control over both the hardware and software side of its business, similar to how Apple has created its own operating system for the iPhone.
Stuff Map Folder with New Nokia Map Loader
A new beta version of Nokia’s Map Loader was released today by the Beta Labs team introducing a few new features that will sure make it easier and more accessible to download maps as well as purchase navigation and city guides. Instead of performing these on the phone, you can now browse through the options from your computer using Map Loader 2.0, then buy them using your credit card information (no Paypal, unfortunately).
In order to install this new beta version, you will have to uninstall any older Map Loader versions, make sure you have the latest PC Suite on, as well as the Net Compact Framework 3.0, then hit this page and download it. A couple of bugs have already been reported to the Beta Labs team, so if you download the application, make sure you drop them a line telling them what you like, what you’d like improved and what are the problems that you’ve had so far so they can improve upon it.
This new application is probably one step closer to the whole Maps experience on Ovi, which is encouraging. But personally I am passing on this one, as there are a lot of “must haves”, in order to get one function that I don’t ever use and that the average person might need like once every month (more or less depending on your usage of Maps) .
Flash Lite 3.0 Beta Demo Application
FlashLite blog have just put a flv demo online for one of the new FL applications they have been working on.
It is in effect a mobile “channel” for a company called Stream that provide On Demand video via set-top boxes & a broadband connection in your home.
The mobile client allows you to log in and view Stream’s content on the move.
It is a completely dynamic menu system, updated via the server, which allows new content to be added on the fly.
The video is handled via Flash media server, and streamed directly to the handset.
The Demo application is connected to the internet by a o2 3G connection in this video.
view the demo here, (apologies for lack of sound)
Update on Widsets and Ovi
Pseudofinn on Nokia Users has looked at the update to Widsets which he says will bring a big change to the My Profile widget increasing the feature set in sharing your favorite widsets (amongst other info) with others. He also includes a run down of other more minor updates.
Meanwhile, Vaibhav Sharma on The Symbian Blog brings news of support for the PicLens plug-in for Share on Ovi - a very nifty solution for full screen browsing. Alongside this, Vaibhav brings word of a new ‘extra large’ image size plus his own ideas for what updates should be implemented in the future.
Remap the Keypad
Not sure why you would want to do that but I’m sure if it can be done, then someone will do it. That’s the case for MagicKey, an application can help you remapping the key usage on your N95, or any S60 phone. Get it from here.
Make the GPS Lock Faster
One thing about the GPS on the smartphone such as the N95 is that it take minutes to lock the satellites and starts the GPS functions. It annoy when you really want to actually use it (lost and in hurry). Here are some tips from All about Symbian could help you relievable the pain:
- First and foremost, make sure that your device has the latest firmware. In many cases, new firmware means support for Assisted GPS, a way of vastly speeding up GPS acquisition time - see my piece on this on AAS.
- Make 100% sure that ‘Settings | General | Positioning | Positioning server’ has the right access point - it should be set to your main 3G data provider, e.g. ‘Vodafone live’ or ‘Orange Internet’. If this is wrong, then GPS locks will be several minutes at least on many S60 phones.
- Make sure you’re in an area of data coverage - being stuck in the wilds or in a valley will mean no data, which in turn means no Assisted GPS.
- Don’t try and get a GPS lock while moving, unless there’s absolutely no alternative. It’s hard enough as it is for your phone to lock onto half a dozen satellites whizzing overhead at thousands of miles per hour - adding in extra complications by moving the device itself just slows down lock times considerably.
- Be realistic if you are moving or if there are tall buildings around, or if you’re in a vehicle with an incomplete view of the sky - locks may take several minutes. The reason why dedicated sat-navs can acquire GPS locks more quickly in these challenging circumstances is that they have higher power, more sensitive receivers on board - the GPS inside most smartphones tends to be of lower power, to save battery life.
- Don’t cover up the GPS antenna. On the N95, this is at the bottom of the keypad, so extend the slide. Find out where the GPS antenna is on your device and don’t cover it with your hand during use - human flesh is reasonably good at blocking radio waves.
Wish this helps.
